Rhonda Townsend

School

Mary Bryan Elementary School

Grant Title

Around the World in 180 Days

Synopsis

This grant will benefit our entire group of second grade students. We have 180 days of school, and in that time through literature, science, and social studies, we will take our kids around the world. Our children will venture to the Polar Regions of our earth. While studying life there, students will learn how Arctic animals adapt to their frigid surroundings by doing a Blubber Glove experiment. While discussing this, we will tie in magnets and discuss the “magnetic” North and South Poles. After that, our children will be whisked away to the rapidly disappearing rain forests. While there, students will learn about the people and their culture. The grant will provide money to do “A Taste of the Rain Forest” where children will get to sample many familiar and exotic foods that come from the rain forest. Students will be encouraged to try new items. Students will also learn that chicle comes from the rain forest and is used as the base in chewing gum. We will make our own chewing gum with chicle and sample it. As a culminating activity, Silly Safaris will bring many animals that originated in the rain forest. Our students will be up close and personal with rain forest frogs, a snake, a small alligator, a bird of prey, and a coatimundi. How many people from Indiana can say they have been in the same room with a coatimundi? Students will venture to Eagle Creek Park to learn about our own backyard habitats. This grant will allow each teacher to purchase caterpillars, so that our children can watch them eat, grow, go through metamorphosis, hatch and finally set them free, thus experiencing the meaning of life cycle. While studying our backyard habitats, we will also purchase owl pellets for our children to dissect, and along with this, we will teach food chains.